Every day after I finished all my classes, the first thing I did was go check on my baby brother Vonzel. We were still in the process of my sister Hazel adopting him but for some reason, it kept getting drawn out longer than necessary, it doesn't matter, I was going to make it a point that he never forgot my face and that I was involved in his life. On a more positive note, lil dude was getting big, like really fuckin big, two years old and already in 4T size clothes, Von looked closer to 5 than two but he was still my lil baby. I hadn't heard from my mom, not that I was looking but it would be nice if she acted like she gave a damn about her four kids... but I knew she didn't, all she cared about was getting drunk and finding her next baby dad. Von moved around his room at Hazel's place showing me all the toys that Hazel and Kemoko had bought for him and I could see he was thriving here, they just needed to go on ahead and let either Hazel on Myzel's dad adopt him so he had somewhere stable to live and we weren't forced to deal with case workers. Hazel's belly entered the room before she did and I found it extremely hard to believe she was carrying one baby, she was big as fuck, but the ultrasound confirmed that there was only one in there and I already knew he was going to be huge.
"Ayy Denzel, when you gonna let me put you on?" Kemoko said and I rolled my eyes, I really hoped he was done with that damn Forex shyt but he was back at it. I couldn't lie he was making money but I just felt like it was a scam.
"I'll have to get back to you... so what's going on with Vonzel? Are they going to let y'all adopt him or what? I think it would be dope as fuck to raise Vonzel with his nephew." I said taking the soccer ball Vonzel offered me and tossing it across the room, knowing he'd bring me something else.
"It's looking good... we go to court in a couple of weeks and if your mom doesn't show up my lawyer said there's a good chance Hazel would get custody." Kemoko said kissing my sister on the cheek.
"Get a room...." Myzel said walking into the room and stepping between them. "How much longer are we going to be here? My dad got a date tonight and for some strange reason they're leaving his girl's daughter over there with me... she's my age with a throat like a damn python... so I'm trying to make sure all my shyt is in order."
"We can leave soon, I got some business that I gotta handle." I said standing up and checking my phone, of course, I had about twenty missed text from the same person I knew I needed to prepare myself before going to see her.
After dropping Myzel off (we ended arguing because he wasn't invited to Piru's birthday party), once he was inside I pulled off and tried to figure out how I wanted to approach this situation. See things with Shannon were still complicated (more on that in a second) but it seemed like the more I wanted to pull away, the more I wanted to go back. She shouldn't have this hold on me and yet she did. I pulled up to her house and the first thing I noticed was my boy Eddie's car, his ass was always over here..... Well, there was only one logical thing to do, I pulled out a blunt to put my mind at ease before getting out of the car and walking up to the porch, I didn't even get the chance to knock before Shannon was opening the door to greet me.
"Hey...." She said trying to hug me but I ducked under her arms and continued into her house, it looked exactly the same; the smell of vanilla, the blunts on the table, the TV playing some female rapper.... but the energy here was off, it just didn't feel like my place of comfort anymore. This was where I came to stay when me and my mom were getting into it, this is the place where I felt like I could be myself and let all my emotions out without fear of judgment.....
"So wassup?" I asked trying to keep my voice even.
"Denzel, what's going on with us?" Shannon asked and I stood there trying to figure out how I wanted to answer this question. "You've been ducking my calls, not coming over like you use to, and when you are here it's like you don't wanna be.... I thought after what happened we would....."
